SRG SSR, the Swiss public broadcaster and the nation’s largest, will decommission its obsolete FM antennas by the end of the year.
The move is not unexpected. The Swiss are increasingly turning to DAB+ or internet broadcasting technology to listen to the news, music, weather or traffic announcements on the radio. Fewer and fewer FM receivers are still in use.
Since 2020, Swiss radio stations have not been obligated to broadcast programs on FM. Given the shift in audio consumption and the cost of maintaining three parallel broadcasting technologies, the SRG SSR Board of Directors decided to stop broadcasting programs via the now obsolete FM antennas on 31 December 2024.
Around ten years ago, the Swiss Federal Office of Communications, private radio stations and SRG SSR began working closely together to plan the transition from FM to DAB+. The predictions that DAB+ would become the new radio standard seem to have been borne out — the proportion of people who listen to radio exclusively via FM has settled at less than 10%.
…and in Germany
Meanwhile, across the border in Germany, radio in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein is going digital. Private and public radio stations have reached an agreement with the state government and media authority to switch to DAB+ digital radio from 2025 to 2031.
Radio stations in Germany have been working on expanding their DAB+ networks and increasing the variety of programs for years after the legal requirements for this have been created.
For listeners in Schleswig-Holstein, the switchover means more diversity in radio broadcasting, which can only be achieved with digital programs. The demand for linear radio programs in Germany remains consistently high.
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